Month: March 2016

Last day of the holiday, can’t forget to do the final post and put up some pictures!

We had an early start as we had to be out of the holiday house by 9am so we made our first stop at a place called Island Honey where we had a tour of the bee keeping facility, saw how they got the honey from the hives, made some of it into beeswax candles and into jars of course for people to eat. We also learnt that contrary to popular belief, honey is not essentially bee poo, more like it’s bee vomit! They have two stomachs and one where nectar goes and their saliva along with enzymes make it into honey and then they regurgitate it back up.

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The next stop was at the KI Distillery. I didn’t take any photos at this place because it was basically just a shop and we got to do some free tastings which is always nice. They mostly focus on gin though and I’m not a huge fan, there were a couple of vodkas and a few liqueurs but none of them really tickled my fancy so I didn’t buy anything except a pot of tea which I enjoyed in their little garden. Mostly just to kill time until heading to the next stop…

Which was the Island Pure Sheep Dairy. My partners parents have sheep on their farm but they don’t milk them. Unfortunately they weren’t milking today, but from the video it looked like it’s the same as cows so nothing I haven’t seen before. There were some awfully cute little lambs though which of course I had to try and feed and pat because they’re just adorable when they’re little!

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Neither of us have had sheep milk products before so we decided to do the tasting which started with the yoghurt and it was just awful. It was a natural yoghurt which can be a bit iffy on its own sometimes anyway, but this just had a really weird sort of tang to it that made it quite unpalatable. Some of the cheeses though were really nice, but the fancier kind of cheeses you’d serve at a party and we really couldn’t justify spending $12 on sheep cheese and maybe not having a chance to use it, when you can get a similar product from the supermarket for much cheaper.

Our final sightseeing stop was at Prospect Hill which is a lookout on top of a hill where you can get a good 360 view. It’s 512 steps to the top, trust me I counted. And I took pictures every 50 steps to see how the view changed as you got higher.

Here are all the progression shots:

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And huzzah shots from the top!

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We still had some time to kill even after doing all of that, so we stopped by a local cafe and grabbed hot chips as an early dinner and ate them down by the beach while we waited for the ferry to whisk us back to the homeland thus concluding our short getaway.

We didn’t make too many stops today, but there was a heck of a lot of driving to get where we wanted to go. The car needed a tank of fuel so we stopped in at Kingscote to get that and while we were in the area thought we’d head up and see a lavender farm that’s about 15km north.

And what can I say, it’s a farm…with lots of lavender! There were so many different varieties I couldn’t believe it, I had no clue there were so many! They had a little shop there as well and, oh my gosh I love the smell of lavender and was looking at some of their hand creams and what not but they were just so expensive I couldn’t justify buying any.

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Then we made the long trip down to Flinders Chase National Park, it took a little over an hour to get there. It’s actually quite a boring drive because the landscape on Kangaroo Island is all the same. It’s just scrub and more scrub!

Anyway, the first place we went to have a look at was Remarkable Rocks and the general gist of these is that this molten rock just sort of rose to the surface and has continued to be weathered to look the way that it does now. There are some pretty cool rock formations, and most fun of all, you get to climb all over them!

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After that we checked out Admiral’s Arch which is basically this big archway of rock, it’s really quite impressive. There are loads of seals that like to hang out there, seems to provide them with a bit of a break from all the weather.

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Last stop in Flinders Chase was a lighthouse up the top near Admiral’s Arch, unfortunately you couldn’t go inside so it was just standing there looking at a building which isn’t quite as exciting as being able to go up inside it! But we had a bit of a break and ate our (very) late lunch while we were there.

We actually spent quite a lot of time in Flinders Chase so by the time we got back to the holiday house it was nearly 6pm so we just ate some left overs from the previous night for dinner and then watched a bit of TV before going to bed ready for the last day of the holiday.

The second day of my holiday was pretty jam packed and included a lot of driving. Because everything is so spread out on Kangaroo Island, this is kind of unavoidable but is definitely worth the trip! You can do bus charters and such if you don’t want to drive but the cost of those is quite expensive so I would choose driving my own car over doing that.

The first stop for the day was at Seal Bay Conservation Park, we opted to do the guided tour down onto the beach as well as go up on the boardwalk. The type of seals they get down on the beach are Australian Sea Lions, they call it home and like to breed there and will actually come up to about 1km inland to use the shelter of the scrub when it’s cold and rainy, which is pretty unusual.

While we were on the beach it started pouring down with rain and we got completely saturated. It didn’t feel like a heavy rain but there was lots of it! Fortunately it wasn’t too cold but it wasn’t pleasant being all wet!

The boardwalk was a nice walk as well, there were some amazing views, plus a skeleton of a humpback whale just chilling on the beach. It was basically like playing a game of spot the Sea Lion because they were hidden all over in cracks and crevices and in the sand dunes which was pretty cool.

We packed lunch with us so we had a bite to eat in between the Sea Lions and the next stop which was Raptor Domain. Oh yes, lots and lots of raptors. We got there in time to see the last half hour of the Raptor show, and there were a few cool birds there, hawks, eagles and even a couple of cute little kookaburras which made me want to cuddle them and take them home!

We also sat in on the “Fang-tastic” show which is one where you get to have a cuddle with all the animals, even the snakes… just not the baby crocodile because you’d probably end up missing a finger! That was really cool but man it did not make me want to have children. So many parents were just letting their kids run around, trying to grab snakes off each other, rather than sitting patiently in their chairs and waiting their turn for a hold. Ugh, honestly people teach your kids some manners! Anyway, despite all that I did still manage to get a cuddle with all the animals which was cool.

Kelly Hill Caves was the next stop. Caves are pretty cool, if you’ve never been inside a cave before that has stalactites and stalagmites then I’d definitely recommend giving it a go just for the experience. We had done a trip last year to Mount Gambier and trekked around all the caves up there so Kelly Hill Caves were just a reminder of some of those caves and to be honest once you’ve seen a cave like that they all start to look the same anyway. But it was still a nice place to park up and have a nosey around.

After that we stopped back in at the holiday house to have a bit of a rest and then headed out for dinner at one of the local pubs which was a nice way to end the day.

The first day of the holiday was all about travelling to Kangaroo Island. Even though in reality, we’re not that far away it still took us a really long time to get there!

We left home about 10am, and stopped in at my partners parents farm on the way down for about 15 minutes to say happy Easter. Then we continued the drive to Cape Jervis and were there a bit early so we stopped at the bakery to have an early lunch. After that we got to the ferry about an hour before it was due to leave so that we could check in and then of course you have to drive the car on to the ferry.

The ferry ride itself only takes about 45 minutes which isn’t too bad, and it wasn’t too rocky which was great. I had been a little worried about my partner getting sick but he was ok. Have any of you ever heard an old wives tale about sticking a brown paper bag under your shirt to prevent sea sickness? Well his gran and his mum were trying to get him to do that just so he wouldn’t be sick. I found it quite humorous, and he didn’t bother, but hey maybe for some people it has a really strong placebo effect which isn’t really a bad thing!

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Once off the ferry it was another half hour drive to get to where we were staying which is a holiday house about 10 minutes out of Kingscote. Nice, secluded and quiet. Away from all the screaming children at caravan parks and motels which is really nice.

It was nearly 3pm when we arrived – yes that’s right, nearly 5 hours to do a trip which driving and ferry journey time was only 2 hours 45 minutes all up, but all that waiting time my gosh. Anyway, 5 hours of travelling, and you know travelling over seas (hehehe) can be such hard work… we had a nap.

Only a quick one though because I wanted to go see the pelican feeding and then have a look around town and see where things like the local petrol station, supermarkets etc were.

The pelican feeding was amazing. Only a $5 donation, honestly if the guy was charging $10 I still would have paid. It was just this flock of pelicans and a few seagulls hoping to steal food rather than become the food. The guy gave us a talk about pelicans and their habits and whatnot which was really interesting, and then started the feeding, and boy did they just gobble it all up!

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After that we did the drive around the town and then headed back to the holiday house, and because we have everything needed in the kitchen to cook dinner, that’s just what we did. Actually I really liked the idea of having a holiday house just for that reason. Not only was it cheaper than a motel per night, you also get to save money by preparing your own food, and lets face it that’s also a better option than eating pub meals every night.

So even though the first day was just about the travel, it was still a great day and a great way to finish up was with the pelican feeding.

It really hasn’t felt like Friday today because of the Good Friday holiday today. It also made the rest of the week feel like it went by really quickly. Not that I’m complaining because I’m now on holiday, and with better phone reception than I thought I would have!

Aside from being on holiday, there are a few highlights from the last week.

Volunteers meeting. There was a Volunteers Meeting up at Monarto Zoo last Saturday and I headed up there to see what the news was and also got to meet a few other volunteers, including my boss and some others I’d be working with.

The Pole Boutique 5th Anniversary Show. The Pole Boutique has been open for 5 years as of January last year and so they did an anniversary show last Sunday night which was amazing. A lot of students and instructors got up and did a piece, and Carlie Hunter closed the show. She’s still most definitely my favourite pole dancer.

Ferry ride!. We caught the Kangaroo Island Ferry over to the island today and neither me or my partner were sick, woohoo! It wasn’t too choppy on the way over either so it was quite a pleasant journey.

Holiday house. Rather than booking into a motel or caravan park, we decided to book a holiday house, partly because it was more cost effective but we also really liked the idea of having a bit of space as well as peace and quiet. The house is actually really nice, it has everything you could think of needing for a home away from home.

Pelican feeding. Aside from actually getting to Kangaroo Island, the only thing we did was take a drive around the town and go see the pelican feeding. We were right up close to the pelicans, and it was pretty cool to see them gobbling everything and the seagulls swooping in to try and steal some food!

Today is my last day of work for about a week, and I’m excited to be getting some time off to have a short getaway with my partner and then have some time to myself as well.

Things with my partner have been strained recently, and we had a counselling session earlier in the week which was actually really good and eased some of the tension. It also gave us a focus point for our little holiday. I’d been feeling a bit dubious and tense about the whole thing, but now that we’ve been instructed that the focus of the holiday is our friendship, I feel a lot better. Despite everything that might have been going on, we always had a good friendship, could always have a good joke and even talk about random things like how black holes work.

Anyway, we are headed off to Kangaroo Island tomorrow morning, and managed to get a holiday house for the stay, so I’m looking forward to the peace and quiet that will provide. A couple of nights ago we wrote down a bit of an itinerary of what to see and do while we’re there. I’m really looking forward to seeing Remarkable Rocks and Seal Bay, I reckon they might be my highlights!

Apparently phone reception over there for my provider is pretty poor, so it’s entirely likely I won’t be doing any blogging until next week some time thanks to that.

I found a really interesting TED Talk video that was all about motivation; what works, what doesn’t.

The message is actually pretty simple, and uses scientific studies to back it up. Basically, using carrots and sticks isn’t a very effective method of motivating people. What does is when they do, whatever it is they’re doing, because they like it and feel like they’re making a difference.

I reflect back and look at the things I’ve tried, like if I exercise X times in a month I’ll treat myself to Y, and that fails miserably because that’s not really what I’m interested in. Then I look at the work I want to do up at Monarto Zoo, which is all volunteer work. Because I love it. Yep, I think I know what the best method is!